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There are 3 modules in this course
Improve the accuracy and reliability of your machine learning models by mastering ensemble techniques. In this intermediate-level course, you’ll learn why combining multiple models can outperform any single algorithm and how to design, select, and apply the right ensemble approach for different tasks. You’ll work through three core ensemble methods—bagging, boosting, and random forests—using Java in a Jupyter Notebook environment. Starting with the fundamentals of decision trees, you’ll progress from theory to practice, exploring bootstrap sampling, hard/soft voting, and the bias–variance trade-offs that influence ensemble performance. Each lesson combines focused videos, scenario-based discussions, AI-graded labs, and a capstone project, guiding you to build and evaluate ensembles on real datasets.
This course is for aspiring data scientists, ML engineers, and Java developers who want to enhance their predictive modeling skills using industry-standard ensemble techniques applied at companies like Netflix, Airbnb, and in Kaggle competitions.
Learners should have basic Java programming knowledge, familiarity with machine learning fundamentals (supervised learning, train/test splits, evaluation metrics), and comfort using Jupyter Notebook.
By the end, you’ll be able to implement, tune, and critically assess which ensemble method is most appropriate for a given problem, equipping you with practical, job-ready skills to improve predictive accuracy.
This module explains the core idea behind ensemble learning—combining multiple models to achieve higher predictive accuracy and stability than any single model. Learners explore how ensembles reduce bias and variance, review real-world use cases, and implement voting classifiers to see the performance gains firsthand.
What's included
4 videos2 readings1 peer review
Show info about module content
4 videos•Total 24 minutes
Welcome to Improve Accuracy with ML Ensemble Methods•2 minutes
Core Principles of Ensemble Learning•5 minutes
Practical Success Stories with Ensembles•7 minutes
Building Voting Classifiers in Java with Jupyter•10 minutes
2 readings•Total 10 minutes
Welcome to the Course: Course Overview•5 minutes
Ensemble Learning: Concepts and Benefits•5 minutes
1 peer review•Total 20 minutes
Hands-On-Learning: Build and Compare Voting Classifiers•20 minutes
Bagging and Boosting
Module 2•1 hour to complete
Module details
This module teaches how to increase model accuracy by reducing variance with bagging and reducing bias with boosting. Learners practice bootstrap sampling, implement bagging in Java using Jupyter, and build a boosting model including AdaBoost to see how sequential learning corrects errors.
What's included
3 videos1 reading1 peer review
Show info about module content
3 videos•Total 21 minutes
Why Bootstrapping Matters for Ensemble Learning•6 minutes
How Bagging Builds Stability in Models•7 minutes
Turning Errors into Accuracy: Boosting with AdaBoost•7 minutes
1 reading•Total 5 minutes
Choosing the Right Ensemble: Bagging vs. Boosting•5 minutes
1 peer review•Total 20 minutes
Hands-On-Learning: Comparing Bagging and Boosting for Credit Risk Prediction•20 minutes
Decision Trees and Random Forests
Module 3•2 hours to complete
Module details
This module covers decision tree fundamentals and shows how random forests combine many trees through feature bagging and averaging to create powerful, stable predictors. Learners build, tune, and evaluate random forest models in Java, interpreting feature importance and comparing results to single-tree models.
What's included
4 videos1 reading1 assignment2 peer reviews
Show info about module content
4 videos•Total 30 minutes
The Mechanics of Decision Trees•10 minutes
How Bagging and Boosting Improve Tree Models•10 minutes
Building Smarter Ensembles with Random Forests•8 minutes
Course Wrap-Up•2 minutes
1 reading•Total 5 minutes
How Decision Trees Split Data: A Guided Walkthrough•5 minutes
1 assignment•Total 20 minutes
Improve Accuracy with ML Ensemble Methods•20 minutes
2 peer reviews•Total 80 minutes
Hands-On-Learning: Decision Trees vs Random Forests for Predictive Maintenance•20 minutes
Project: Building Reliable Ensemble Models for RetailGuard Analytics •60 minutes
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Is financial aid available?
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